Mandya, Oct 9 (IANS): Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President DK Shivakumar on Friday announced that an "apolitical" farmers convention would be held in Mandya to deliberate on the "ill-effects of anti-farmers laws passed unilaterally by the Union government".

Mandya is 120 km from Bengaluru, where the Congress will organise its farmers convention on Saturday for which it has invited half a dozen prominent farmer leaders who have been in the forefront of their agitation for more than a month.

Speaking to reporters here after overseeing preparations by the Mandya district Congress here, Shivakumar said: "The party will invite farmer leaders and party leaders to deliberate on the anti-farmer laws enacted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government last month."

He added that the party wished to invite a large number of participants but due to rising Covid cases, the party could not organise a big rally.

"Instead of organising a big rally or march, we have decided to hold small apolitical farmers convention (Kisan Sammelan) as directed by the All India Congress Committee as part of its countrywide outreach programme," he said.

In response to a question, Shivakumar said that he does not believe in caste or religion politics.

"I am a loyal Congressman. In our party, no one is a big leader, including myself. My caste and religion is that of the Congress that belongs to this country and everyone and is not restricted to a particular community. In our party, we all are workers. I am also a worker, who happens to head the party state unit. Every party worker is given responsibility, which we perform with honesty," he said in response to a question that he was trying hard to be a Vokkaliga face of the party.